People who are in the market for paint often need a sample of the color to compare it with other furnishings. Accordingly, it is important to be able to display and dispense color cards in a paint store for customers. The color card dispensers of the prior art had the inherent problems of not being able to be readily seen or of not being easily removable from the containers. Moreover, prior art packages such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,463,309 and 1,704,675, which are incorporated herein by reference, did not allow the user to readily grasp a single color card and remove it from the dispenser. The prior art devices also had the deficiency of enabling the user to grasp many cards at one time and remove them.
In the present invention, a dispensing package has been designed which particularly allows for displaying a series of different-colored cards in dispensers which are mounted in a package holder. Each of the dispensing packages has a series of one-color sample cards located in it, and each is so designed that a person need only push on one of the cards to partially remove it from the dispenser. The person may then simply grasp the individual card and remove it while the remaining color cards stay exactly in the position in the dispenser for which they were designed. Moreover, the next color card is displayed for a subsequent potential customer.
In order to accomplish the results of readily displaying and dispensing different color cards, a dispensing package has been designed which includes a front panel and a back panel interfitted so that they form a recess therebetween. The front panel has an opening across its width of the front surface and has a top, bottom, and sides operatively connected to form a boxlike aperture. It also has a top and bottom flange. The bottom flange is hingedly connected to the back panel. A compartment in the back panel encloses a resilient biasing member such as a polymeric foam or a metal or plastic spring which acts against the color cards in the recess forcing the color cards towards the front panel. The back panel also has a bottom, sides, and top portion, along with an upper and lower flange. The top portion includes an upwardly and outwardly directed cam surface which fits through the opening in the front panel. The front panel and back panel are so sized that they interfit closely.
As a result of the structure of this invention, the user would insert a finger (normally, a thumb) in an opening in the front panel and push the color card toward the cam surface. A single color card would thus be moved toward the cam surface. The top edge of the color card would engage the cam surface and move through the opening in the front panel. The remaining color cards would be located in their present position and would still be biased and held in compression by the biasing member in the back panel. The use of this invention prevents the former fumbling for cards which were difficult to grasp and pull from their containers. This invention also prevents inadvertently grasping a multiplicity of cards.
The use of this invention provides for the efficient display and dispensing of color cards or other materials which has heretofore been unknown.